I dropped Simon off at the airport for his exam this morning at 8:30am. The exam was 40 questions and 3.5 hours long. After hours of study he came out the exam with a 90%. Lots of joy in our house tonight. Another hurdle cleared and off to face the next one. Thanks to those of you who keep praying for us. The last few months have been seriously crazy but we are learning to take one challenge at a time or trying to.
Tomorrow morning our shipment arrives from Brisbane. It will be funny to have a sofa again to sit on, beds to sleep in, a dining room table to eat from, washing machine and all the other things we packed 4 months ago. Having said that I will miss my frequent trips to Tree Tops (Guesthouse where we first stayed on arriving in Australia) to do our laundry and have theological discussions over folding clothes or learning about someones experience of living in the bush in PNG. Might need to find some excuse to make a visit once in a while. J and Z are also going to miss swimming in the pool too!!!
Joshua and Zara had their swimming gala today at school. Zara got first place in her two races and Joshua came second. Their house - "Crocs" won the gala so they were excited to share the news when they returned from school.
We were also looking at moving house but this has not worked out. After various conversations with a property agent, migrant specialist, lawyer and others it looks like it will be better, for now, to stay where we are until we upgrade our visa status. That will take just under a year to process. We are still rejoicing in getting our 457 visa so the 187 will just need to wait for a bit.
I will post some photos of our shipment when it arrives. Hopefully all in one piece. It is going to feel a lot like Christmas!!!!
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Thankful for a breakfast bar
We are thankful for this breakfast bar. This is a multi purpose unit. It is where the meals get made, the homework gets done and the flight planning happens for the following days flight.
Tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd) is Simon's next flight exam. We are praying that he passes the first time although he has been warned this is the most difficult of them all and that it is not unusual to fail the first time. Tomorrow we will know.
Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Woohoo we have our visa
After an interesting few months of gathering information for our visa application and trying to figure out the system a surprising miracle happened. Our visa application was finally applied for last week and yesterday we got an email and a phone call to say that it was already accepted. To say we were surprised was an understatement. We were told it could take anywhere from 8-12 weeks to be processed.
This means that we now have a 4 year temporary permanent visa for living in Australia. We will need to apply for another visa so that it is more permanent but all in due time. Need to rejoice in making it this far first. (haha).
Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us and asking how we are doing. Your prayers were answered and it is a huge relief to have jumped that hurdle.
Now for the next one......
This means that we now have a 4 year temporary permanent visa for living in Australia. We will need to apply for another visa so that it is more permanent but all in due time. Need to rejoice in making it this far first. (haha).
Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us and asking how we are doing. Your prayers were answered and it is a huge relief to have jumped that hurdle.
Now for the next one......
Friday, 10 February 2017
Quick update
It has been busy last few weeks with lots of comings and goings. Simon is finishing up his third week of his standardistion course with one more week to go. He has enjoyed all the flying and also getting to fly another aircraft. So lots to learn but thankful for his flying experience these last years in MAF Uganda.
There are more courses for him to do as well as exams coming up so there is never a dull moment. I am sure he would value your prayers that we he would retain the information well and continue to adjust to the newness of everything.
This week he and another pilot were supposed to flying into a specific airstrip only to find that there were termite hills on the runway. They returned to Mareeba and then drove to the airstrip where they knocked them all down and made the airstrip useable again. Not too far from his days in Africa. It was good for the other pilot who hasn't served in a programme before to see what could be coming his way. The joys of bush flying.
Joshua and Zara are settling into school. They have made friends and adjusting to a new school culture and all that comes with it. They are enjoying the experience and come back positive at the end of each day which is a real answer to prayer. They always seem to have a lot of homework so takes a bit of time to get their head around that especially after enjoying all the long holidays recently.
They are involved in a Youth Group on a Friday night and have a lot of fun there. There are usually between 80 and 100 kids so plenty of options for friends.
My days are also not boring. (haha). Finding my role within MAF and outside MAF takes time but God has a plan so I am not worried. I have started studying again in the area of coaching. This will add to what what I was doing in Uganda with Member Care. It is an online course here in Australia so I can take it at my own pace which is helpful. We will see where this all leads to. I have also been having helpful conversations with different people as to the needs around so lots of things to process.
Our shipment from Uganda with all our belongings is in Brisbane and so hopefully will head north soon. Friends of ours that were also leaving Uganda around the same time shared our container. Their belongings need to go onto New Zealand and ours needs to get to Cairns. It all takes time logistically to make everything happen. So we continue to play the waiting game.
Some good news is that our visa application for a more permanent status went in this week. It should take around 8 weeks to process or longer depending on how it goes. Thankfully once our visitors visa runs out we will be put on a bridging visa so we won't have to leave the country and then come back in again. It has been quite the process but we are moving ahead one step at a time.
Well that is just a wee glimpse into what we are up to right now. Thanks to all of you for your faithful commitment to pray for us. It is working and we appreciate it.
There are more courses for him to do as well as exams coming up so there is never a dull moment. I am sure he would value your prayers that we he would retain the information well and continue to adjust to the newness of everything.
This week he and another pilot were supposed to flying into a specific airstrip only to find that there were termite hills on the runway. They returned to Mareeba and then drove to the airstrip where they knocked them all down and made the airstrip useable again. Not too far from his days in Africa. It was good for the other pilot who hasn't served in a programme before to see what could be coming his way. The joys of bush flying.
Joshua and Zara are settling into school. They have made friends and adjusting to a new school culture and all that comes with it. They are enjoying the experience and come back positive at the end of each day which is a real answer to prayer. They always seem to have a lot of homework so takes a bit of time to get their head around that especially after enjoying all the long holidays recently.
They are involved in a Youth Group on a Friday night and have a lot of fun there. There are usually between 80 and 100 kids so plenty of options for friends.
My days are also not boring. (haha). Finding my role within MAF and outside MAF takes time but God has a plan so I am not worried. I have started studying again in the area of coaching. This will add to what what I was doing in Uganda with Member Care. It is an online course here in Australia so I can take it at my own pace which is helpful. We will see where this all leads to. I have also been having helpful conversations with different people as to the needs around so lots of things to process.
Our shipment from Uganda with all our belongings is in Brisbane and so hopefully will head north soon. Friends of ours that were also leaving Uganda around the same time shared our container. Their belongings need to go onto New Zealand and ours needs to get to Cairns. It all takes time logistically to make everything happen. So we continue to play the waiting game.
Some good news is that our visa application for a more permanent status went in this week. It should take around 8 weeks to process or longer depending on how it goes. Thankfully once our visitors visa runs out we will be put on a bridging visa so we won't have to leave the country and then come back in again. It has been quite the process but we are moving ahead one step at a time.
Well that is just a wee glimpse into what we are up to right now. Thanks to all of you for your faithful commitment to pray for us. It is working and we appreciate it.
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